When We Catch a Criminal
by Tigress2475
Summary: Alfred F. Jones is an odd character. At first glance he may seem harmless or maybe even dense, but that's not really the case now is it? After all, how else would he be able to keep his group going and out from behind bars? Especially if a certain agency's after them. AU Criminal!talia and Police!talia (USUK but with other side ships.)
1. Chapter 1

**Hai guys. ;A; **

**So pretty much I've wanted to write a fanfiction for a while now, but wasn't really sure what to write. I realized I adore Criminal!Alfred drama because in my mind, even if he is a criminal he'd still totally act like a big kid. XD But then this idea came to me so... Yeah. :)**

**USUK will be the main ship in this fiction, but I'm going to add in others later. (Also there's DenNor in this chapter) **

**If you read all this you get a cookie and a hug! :3 (Sorry for having to deal with author's rambles. Heh.)**

**Edit- Scroll to the bottom for character clarification if it gets confuzzling.**

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******Wait do I really have to say I don't own Hetalia? Because I don't. Thought that was pretty obvious being on FF and all. XD**

* * *

Officer Christensen stared daggers at the man sitting impassively at the table in front of him. The blond haired youth seemed to take no mind to the officer's leering and even had the audacity to _whistle _an atrocious tune.

The large cop loomed a little closer, finally getting the attention of the man. He looked up at the officer and simply raised an eyebrow. Christensen grit his teeth and rubbed his temples slowly.

"I'm going to ask you _one more time _sir. What were you doing at the scene of the crime?" He managed to snarl out through his barely contained rage.

The man in front of him just smirked, blue eyes glinting in a way that deeply unsettled the cop. "While I _still _think it would be wiser to wait until my lawyer shows up to answer that, I don't think we're getting anywhere. So I'll say this 'one more time'," the man said, his smirk remaining neatly in place as he mimicked the Danish officer's accent, "I wasn't there." He finished.

"Like hell you weren't!" The older man finally broke. "I _saw _you leave the premise _Jones_!" Mathias hissed, using the only name the man had provided them like it was a curse.

Jones shrugged. "Your eyes must be going. Takes a lot off ya to be a cop am I right?" Then he pouted. _Pouted_. Mathias resisted the urge to punch the criminal, since he obviously was a criminal, in his annoying little face.

"It was you. Now if you'd tell me the truth, and tell me _why _that building happened to collapse a few minutes after your exit we could speed this up." The Danish man leaned back against the wall behind him. He needed to not loose his temper. He was being unprofessional and he knew it but...

"I don't know... There are a lot of people around here you could mistake for me." Jones said, his face suddenly becoming neutral. "You say I left the scene right? Yet you picked me up far away from that building. However if I do remember correctly, they found another boy there right? About my age?" Mathias eyes widened as Jones went on, getting more and more descriptive of something he should not know at all. The air chilled.

"Ahh yeah." Jones continued. "Gray hair right? Silly little accent, almost like yours?" Now the other man was leaning forward, seeming to loom in on Christensen instead. "I've been here for a bit." He continued cryptically. "Poor boy must have gotten himself involved with some bad people. From what I heard he was pretty nice. Being raised only by his brother after his parents died must have sucked though. And I can't imagine what that brother will think when he finds his little brother locked up from associating with some sort of terrorist group."

Mathias lost it and slammed his palms down on the desk in front of the other man. But for all the force he had placed in that assault on the furniture, his voice came out surprisingly soft. "How did you do it?" His eyes flashed warningly. "Emil couldn't have done it, he was walking home from Li's house. He was _on the phone _with Lukas until it cut out and I went to investigate."

Jones simply raised an eyebrow. "Dunno. Seems pretty incriminating." His cold impassiveness suddenly changed into a wide grin as he waved to someone behind Mathias. Mathias stiffened as he felt the air shift behind him as he turned to look at the newcomer.

The new man looked surprisingly like Jones, with slightly longer hair and eyes more a shade of violet as opposed to the striking ice blue of the criminal's (because he _was _a criminal, Emil had done _nothing_). The man sighed and held out a hand to shake the officer's.

Mathias eyed it warily before accepting the hand shake. This man seemed presentable, with his pressed suit and briefcase (a far cry from Jones' T-shirt and jeans) but if Mathias guessed right than this man was the lawyer, and Mathias had never really trusted lawyers despite being a police man.

"Hello," the man said in a soft voice that seemed to ebb away at the officer's worries. "My name is Matthew Williams and I am Alfred Jones' lawyer." He said smiling.

_Ah, so it's Alfred. _Mathias thought for a second before settling back into his usual leeriness. (It was something he had only developed after years of being on the force, when he was a kid he actually got into all kinds of trouble with larger kids, and may have even had a bit of an alcohol addiction. However he had left all of this behind him when he joined the force, all except his slight hero complex and the idea he had to protect everyone.)

Matthew sighed and rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. "Sir may I speak to you alone?" He asked and the officer gave him a look of surprise. Usually lawyers wanted to get their stories straight with their clients alone first, not talk to the police alone. He nodded and lead (what was his name again? It started with Mat like his name right?) the other man to a different room. Once inside he sighed and looked up at the man.

He was surprised to see the man immediately cutting to the chase and opening his brief case. He rustled around some papers before carefully collecting a select few and closing the case.

"Listen I have a suggestion for you Mr..." The man trailed off.

"Christensen." The cop supplied.

"Christensen ah yes how could I forget, sorry." The man smiled, but the once warm smiled seemed oddly cold now. He looked an awful lot like a loan shark, Mathias thought briefly.

"Anyway, I have a suggestion for you. It is a very nice suggestion, and honestly very generous." Matthew (that was it) continued. "It could solve everyone's problems nice and easy." He then handed the papers to the officer.

"You see for some unfortunate reason, it seems a building in this very city recently had some structural damage. It wasn't noticed by any of the inspectors; a shame really. Thank God there was nobody in there, eh?" The Canadian smiled.

"However, since the building was so structurally unsound, it just happened to collapse a little while ago. While it was dangerous, and might cost the local government a bit of a pretty penny, nobody was hurt."

The lawyer paused at this. He was all grins and warmth as he continued. "Again, while this _does _seem rather terrible, it certainly wasn't anybody's fault. Just... structural damage."

Mathias was looking over the papers that were handed to him, noticing the man had kept a few in his other hand for the moment being. They were all reports of a certain company, the very same that had built the building, getting fined for other shoddy jobs in the past. There was even a very official looking document claiming to have investigated the building and deeming this the very cause of the collapse. Mathias narrowed his eyes. He knew it had been far too little time for an investigation to occur. "And what if this story doesn't ring any bells?" He asked.

The temperature dropped in the room. "Well, from what I've seen, I highly _suggest _that it seems to be the truth." The Canadians smile disappeared and what seemed like legitimate regret filled his eyes. "However there is another... theory as to what happened. More like a conspiracy theory but what can you do, eh?"

The man then handed the other papers to Mathias. "Some people think some anarchists did the damage." He stated seriously. "While this seems highly unlikely to me, it could very well be true under _certain circumstances._ That is, if certain facts fit together. Right now it's complete trash, but..." He trailed off.

He focused his serious violet eyes on Mathias again as the officer's grip tightened on the papers in his hands. They were crude blueprints of some sort of explosive. His eyes paged through a few paragraphs about rising tension in the nearby, larger, cities. Finally they came to rest on something he couldn't believe.

It was a picture of Emil, carrying a backpack that Mathias very well knew he didn't have (after all he saw him practically every other day when visiting Lukas) into a building that no longer existed.

"You see," Matthew broke into Mathias' thoughts once more. "It's all complete _trash _right? The building collapsed because of faulty construction. No one got hurt." He said the last part as his eyes flicked regretfully down at the picture of Emil.

"There's no need to investigate it further." He sighed. "If it _were_ investigated who knows what it would turn up."

Mathias simply stared at the papers. Dry-mouthed he began speaking. "What was this suggestion again?" He asked. He knew very well when he was out of his league, and all he really wanted was to keep Emil out of whatever all of this was. It was his job as a police officer to bring people to justice, but he loved Emil like a brother. He knew Emil was innocent because he had seen Lukas' panic when he said the call had been cut off with what sounded like struggling. He would do anything to keep Emil safe and keep Lukas' heart from breaking again. Lukas had already become so reclusive after his parent's death, he didn't want to see Lukas like that ever again.

The Canadian just raised an eyebrow. "Suggestion?" He asked tipping his head. "I was just saying I suggest you take all this," he said pushing the folder on the building's 'collapse' towards Mathias while pushing the pictures of Emil off to the side, "into consideration, and release my client."

He looked at the lawyer for a minute. "Anything else?" He asked.

The man seemed to brighten. "Well it just seems like a certain Alfred Jones was never near that building. Nobody was?" He added just a hint of an upward inflection on the last sentence and Mathias nodded.

"The building collapsed because of structural weakness." He agreed picking up the folder that agreed with that story.

Matthew seemed to become much more sweet now. "Right." He agreed picking up the folder with Emil's pictures and put them back in his briefcase. "Also, Alfred Jones was never in the police station either." He added glancing back at the defeated looking officer. "But don't worry," he said, a genuine smile appearing on his face, softening his features. "Neither was Emil Bondevik."

With that he turned and left Mathias standing alone in the cold room.

* * *

"Thanks Mattie" Alfred chirped as the two of them left the police station. "Don't know what I'd do without you."

"Get locked up." Matthew muttered as he stomped back to his sleek black car, opening the driver door as Alfred stepped into the passenger seat. The car started with a purr, as apposed to the loud roaring cars Alfred liked. Matthew pushed down on the pettle and drove away from the mess he had just gotten Alfred out of.

"Aww. I don't know, I think I'd have beem able to talk my way out of that if you'd given me more time." Alfred pouted. He may not be as good as Matthew, but Alfred was a bit of a silvertounge himself. He could never quite get the way Matthew acted down though, when he wanted to that man could be downright terrifing.

"Or gotten your face beat in and an extra life-sentance tacked on for being a blabber-mouth." Matthew sighed. "And probably get the rest of us locked up too." He shot Alfred a warning glare out of the corner of his eye.

Alfred's face grew even more puckered as he crossed his arms and made a small 'hmph' sound. "Where is the gang anyway?" He asked reluctantly after a moment of silence, watching the countryside pass by.

Matthew sighed. "New safehouse in none other than New York City." He said and chuckled fondly as Alfred gave up the pouty act and began to squeal.

* * *

True to his word, when Mathias checked to police records the next day, there was no sign of any Alfred Jones in any of the database.

He sighed and turned off the computor. At least Emil's arrest had also been mysteriously stricken from the records. The officer began his walk to his house and paused. He turned and chose to walk down a different path instead.

Maybe it was time to give up being a police officer and have a serious talk with Lukas about the future.

* * *

The man stared pointedly at the computor in front of him. His eyes narrowed as he held a hand out behind him, which was immediately handed a steaming cup.

"Um. Sir?" The voice asked nervously. "It really is time you go home, you're exhausted. I know you've been working on this lately but..." She trailed off as she recieved a glare from the man who was sitting in front of the screen.

"Kate, I appreciate your worry, I really do, but I think I'm onto something." He said gesturing to the map on the screen.

The young woman took it as an indication to lean forward and examine the map. She looked at the points varying in color, blue being the oldest ranging to red being the most recent.

"Um... Sir?" She asked tentatively.

The man gave her a rare smile as he pointed to all the different colors. At first glance they seemed pure mayhem, however the longer you stared at them, the more they seemed to form a patteren. Almost as if they were planned to appear disorganized.

The woman stood still as his finger finally pointed to the newest, red, dots. He quickly typed in some code that Kate couldn't quite follow and lines started appearing on the screen. The man nearly clapped in glee as the scene played out in front of them, the computor happily playing connect-the-dots with a few extra pointers from the formula that had been entered.

Finally,the computor finished and a large grid was laid out on the screen. In the dead center, was New York City.

"Got it." The man said, emerald green eyes shining with anticipation.

* * *

**Character Clarification-**

**Mathias Christensen= Denmark**

**Lukas= Norway**

**Emil Bondevik= Iceland**

**Li= Hong Kong**

**Kate= Fem!New Zealand**

**/Bet-You-Can't-Guess-Who-Mr-Green-Eyes-Is-coughcough/dies (Dawn can not into subtle)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again. This chapter is told entirely from the criminals' point of view, so enjoy "hardened criminals" acting like little children (except maybe Matthew).**

**It's kind of mood whiplash but that's how these guys work. It'll get more serious again next chapter. Aaaand I'm making you wait a chapter to meet all the _other_ gang. Because I'm evil that way.**

**Also check the very bottom for character clarification if you can't figure the names out.**

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The occupants of the room all jumped as the door slammed open revealing a slightly over-enthusiastic looking Alfred F. Jones. Well, all except the young lady in the room who had only watched in amusement as all the men were too absorbed in their work to hear the pounding of feet up out in the hallway.

"I'm back!" Alfred yelled loudly, practically skipping into the room. "Miss me? How did you go on without me, really?"

All he got from that was a loud snicker, a few grumbles, and a "shuttap."

Alfred recoiled in mock astonishment, he wasn't really all that surprised at the seemingly cold reception, he knew how his gang was after all. "What? You- you didn't care that I was gone and maybe dead in a ditch somewhere? Really guys I... I thought we had something-" He started, but was cut off as he had to quickly dodge three projectiles. One was a pillow, harmless enough, but the others being a soda can and a picture frame might hurt a bit more on impact.

"Shut it Al." Came an annoyed voice. Looking around he spotted the offender sprawled on the couch. "It's bad enough I have to deal with you normally, but I have a pounding headache and your voice isn't helping."

The man was lying face down on the pale blue couch that sat in the center of the living area. The room was nice and large, large enough to accommodate seven people shuffling around all at once, and bright too, but still not big enough to keep the gang from arguing apparently. Alfred smiled gleefully at the sight of the new house. _His _new house.

Alfred then put on a smirk and snorted. "It's not my fault you were probably out drinking all last night." He said as he strolled over to the large man. He then took the daring risk of knocking his knuckles on the man's brown hair before darting away laughing loudly as a rather heavy looking book was chucked at him.

Matthew sighed as he stepped through the doorway into the chaos that was building at an alarming rate. He resigned himself to his fate of breaking up a fight when he saw a large book fly past Alfred's head and an appalled "I was _reading that _Sadiq!" rang through the room. He smiled as he felt a hand pat his back.

"Sorry 'bout this Birdie." The silver haired man beside him smirked. "If I knew Sadiq was such a light-weight I wouldn't have taken him out for pity drinks yesterday. Didn't know he'd still be this pissed when you came home with the obnoxious one."

"I am not a light-weight!" The man turned and called back. "I just had a little too much to drink and- wait who said those were pity drinks! You wanna go! I swear Gilbert I will skin you!" He called, raging over to the albino who just giggled and jumped away from the furious man.

"Nein, nein." He said as he practically danced his way across the room, avoiding the tanned man's attempts to grab him. "We're cool right Turks?" He laughed.

Sadiq stopped long enough to cast another withering glare at Gilbert before marching over to lay back down on the couch. He flopped face-down on the couch and promptly received a smack on the back of the head. He winced and looked up, rubbing the back of his head, to see an angry looking Asian man holding a large book. (Ow, guess that book _was _as heavy as it looked.)

"Next time don't touch my stuff, aru!" The man huffed as he turned and walked out of the room towards the back of the building that held the bedrooms, mumbling about "professional" and "how did he get involved in this crap" and "no respect."

Matthew breathed out a sigh of relief as it seemed that the ever-impending fight had in fact, _not _broken out. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised to find that everybody seemed in a good enough mood. (Besides Sadiq's pity party for himself and Yao's ever present temper, not that either of the two would admit to such things.)

"So," Matthew began. "What'd I miss when I had to fly out to _Maine _to find out where Alfred had run off to after screwing up his last job?"

Three nervous faced glanced up at the chill in Matthew's voice, and even though he wore a bright smile, chills ran down everyone's spines in what approached fear.

"Not much, Birdie." Gilbert snickered. "Just the awesomist news of the century. Well, aside from myself of course. Nothing could be more awesome than news about me. In fact, thinking about it this news isn't actually quite that awesome at all compared to just the past ten minutes of me." Gilbert's smile had faded to a frown. "And considering there's been a lifetime of me so far... actually the news is kind of lame. Aw crap now all news ever is gonna be lame if I compare it to me! What if-" Gilbert continued growing pale.

"Shut UP would you!" The young woman moaned. "I really don't understand how you can talk about yourself so much."

"Well because I'm awesome of course!" Gilbert grinned widely again.

"She's right you know. It's ridiculous... I'm totally awesomer." Alfred said. He laughed again at the deadly poisonous look Gilbert sent him.

"Nobody is as awesome as the mighty ME!" He declared loudly, lunging at Alfred as the two tumbled to the ground in a wrestling match. Matthew just sighed as the young woman, Elizabeta, actually seemed to perk up at the fiasco in front of her.

"Can someone _please _tell me what the news was?" He asked hopefully towards Elizabeta. She was his only hope as Gilbert and Alfred were rolling around on the floor; Sadiq was ignoring them all, continuing to nap; Yao nowhere to be found, as he had already retreated to his room; and the last member of their group was probably out-

"She said yes!" A voice screeched out behind Matthew. The poor young man held his ears as the loud voice continued. "Da-ze! Her breasts are totally belonging to me now!"

Matthew sighed. "Uh-huh. What exactly did this poor young woman say?" He asked as the young Asian man twirled (no lies, he twirled) into the room. He immediately felt sorry for whatever girl Im Yong Soo had been pestering lately. Maybe he'd arrange a bouquet to apologize for the young man's behavior. All he really hoped was that he didn't have to wiggle Im Yong Soo out of an assault charge anytime soon. (Though really the last time had been ridiculous. Matthew didn't even want to think about the mess that had involved a chocolate cake, a water-fountain, a rubber chicken, a pair of red-high heels, some misplaced words, a very angry young woman, and a soaked Im Yong Soo.)

"She said to go away!" The man brightened. Flashing a dazzling smile at the rest of the room. "It's fate! Destiny! She totally loves me!" He yelled.

"How in the world is that a yes?" Elizabeta asked from her perch on a large wooden desk, delicately sipping hot chocolate. It was a lot nicer response than the faint wailing of "Where did I go _wrong?_" that could be heard from the back of the house.

"She didn't punch me in the face like the last one or anything!" He exclaimed. He finally stilled in the center of the room. He glanced from Alfred and Gilbert (who had thankfully stopped fighting and now sat on the floor laughing about how Yong Soo would never meet a girl who would even talk to him for more than five minutes, let alone date him) to Sadiq passed out on the couch to Elizabeta sighing and rubbing her temples in frustration. "Did I miss something?" He asked, with such sincere, innocent curiosity that Matthew had to smile faintly.

"Not any more than you always do." He chuckled, closing the door and wondering how the hell he had met this group of misfits.

* * *

Feliks sauntered around his small shop, greeting everyone who came in happily.

"How's the kid 'Jer'?"

"Did you like the chocolate Laura?"

"Another cat Heracles? You sure you can take of them all?"

The young man was so nice and uplifting, most people chose to ignore the tacky pink shirt and purple pants he wore, despite owning one of the most prospering fashion boutiques in New York City. He worked his way around the racks and skipped off to the connecting coffee shop that he also ran. Greeting a few other people on the way there, he sighed as he finally sat down with a mocha and grinned happily at the man sitting opposite of him.

"What's up?" He asked, grinning so much that his eyes actually shut. "I like, totally didn't expect you to call but you like, totally did!"

"Yeah sorry about that bro." Alfred replied, grinning back. Anyone watching would probably gotten a toothache from all the happy atmosphere radiating off the table. "I was up in Maine for a bit after that last thing."

Feliks finally stopped smiling at that. Concern written on his face. "You could have said something though." He said at last. "I thought you were a goner there for a little bit. Then who would I have to talk to?"

"How about the rest of New York City." Alfred laughed. "Who _don't _you talk to Feliks?"

Feliks pursed his lips, thinking. He finally shrugged. "Yeah, but believe it or not I would like, totally be all sad and stuff if you bit the dust." He finished.

"Well that's nice to know." Alfred gestured to the menu in front of them. "You want anything?" He asked.

"Nah." Feliks replied. "It's on the house if you want any though. Take it as a congrats on finally moving to the best city ever. I know it's a bad idea with like, how much you eat all the time and stuff, but I can totally give you a break this time since I haven't seen you in forever."

"Thanks dude!" Alfred squealed as he called a waitress over and pointed animatedly at a few items on the menu. Feliks winced as the expensive food came out a bit later and decided that he would, in fact, steal some of the delicious looking chocolate from Alfred because it _was _his shop after all.

"Anyways I heard you had some awesome news for me?"Alfred asked as he stuffed his face with the food that really should have been eaten more slowly.

Feliks nodded animatedly. "Totally!" He exclaimed. "It's gonna be like, the best thing ever!"

At that point Feliks started waving his arms out in exaggerated gestures. He began to explain to Alfred just what he had heard. They sat that way for almost an hour with Feliks prattling off non-stop while Alfred nodded, equally as excited.

"And that is my news!" He finished and suddenly started gulping in air as if his lungs had just realized that yes, in fact Feliks was a human being and did in fact need to breathe.

"So this art museum..." Alfred pondered out loud. "How good's it's security?"

Feliks grinned a wicked grin. "Absolutely nothing that Im Yong Soo can't handle." He stated matter-of-factly. "It's actually like, kind of pathetic from what I heard. Totally not cool to leave such amazing works of art under such crappy security. I know you'll take much better care of them." He finished his thought with a chaste nod and a smug look.

"Great! But who's this dude you were talking about? I've never heard of him." Alfred asked. His talks with Feliks always went the same way, Feliks would talk _at_ him for as long as he wanted, (one talk lasted for almost two and a half _hours_) finally finish, and then Alfred would spend the next half hour or so clarifying things that he could have asked while Feliks was talking, but wouldn't have gotten an answer for if he did. If Alfred interrupted Feliks he always just got mad and pouty. It was kind of annoying and totally not like Alfred at all, but Alfred loved their talks just the same. Feliks really was a good friend of Alfred's, just a more peculiar one.

Feliks actually gasped at that one. "You've never heard of Feliciano Vargas!" He cried out in dismay. "Have you been like, living under a rock or what!"

Alfred shrugged. "I haven't done an art gig in a few months. Must be a new guy right?"

Feliks nodded. "New, _and _extremely talented, _and..._" He winked at Alfred at this. "has been going for quite a pretty pony."

Alfred quirked a brow. "Penny, you mean."

"No, no, no. Ponies are much better." Feliks dead-panned, completely serious.

Alfred resisted the urge to laugh and continued. "So we aim for the Vargas works?" He asked.

Feliks nodded. "Grab a few others while you're there sure but I'm totally telling you those are like, totally worth it. The artist flew here himself to deliver them! All the way from Italy!"

Alfred thanked Feliks for the food and left without much trouble. He _had_ had to promise to text Feliks when the job was done and give him a bit of the profit but Alfred didn't mind. Knowing Feliks though he'd probably just waste it on extravagant gifts for his new "totally awesome and wonderful and like, handsome" guy friend... that or another pony.

* * *

Alfred smiled as he opened the door to the living room and found the whole gang waiting for him. All six of them were there; even Yao, although he was grumbling something about "respecting your elders" again as Im Yong Soo (his younger cousin) clung to his arm going on and on about the same pretty young girl from before.

They all looked up expectantly at Alfred as a devious grin crossed his face. "Get ready 'Nations', I have a job for us. Tonight!"

Most people would expect a shocked reply to this, some sort of resistance at the short notice at least. Instead however, he was met with small cries of glee from Gilbert and Sadiq, a small smile from Elizabeta, rapid clapping noise from Im Yong Soo, and a smug smile from Yao. Five of the six got up and rapidly started to move around the house. All chattering about excitedly.

Alfred grinned proudly at his gang. _His _gang. He snapped out of his glee when he felt Matthew poke him on his shoulder.

"What is it Mattie?" He asked confused. While much more calm and relaxed about these things, Matthew was usually just as excited (on the inside at least) as the rest of them.

"You still never told me why you blew up that building." Matthew mused softly. Alfred got the hint and smiled pulling Matthew into a crushing hug.

"Sorry I worried you bro!" Alfred said. "I'm sorry I ran off for a week. I was just a little ashamed that I botched the last job okay? Forgive and forget?" He asked pulling back and smiling hopefully at his brother.

Matthew smiled back, never able to stay mad at his brother. "Yeah... but seriously what did that building do to you?"

Alfred rubbed the back of his hand and chuckled nervously. "I might have dented the car when I tried to pull into it's parking garage to hide it. The stupid parking garage deserved it, it was totally not well planned out at all. Plus it's not like anyone was there."

Matthew's eyes widened. "Alfred I _liked _the Honda!" He cried as he ran down to the garage to assess the damage he hadn't even known about. How he hadn't noticed it as they had loaded it along with Matt's own car onto a _plane _still astounded Alfred.

"You would!" He called down the stairs at his brother. "It's totally lame!"

"_Alfred!_" The voice called back up, but the American simply laughed.

The fact that Matt was more upset about the car rather than the ruined building just proved that he wasn't so above them all.

* * *

OOC-

Important- Clarification before things go sour. Im Yong Soo is a perfectly fine young man. I don't want any bad ideas popping up about him because this is a criminal fic and he is a "criminal." Yes, he does bother girls a lot but there's nothing illegal going on there. He doesn't really assault any of them either. Most of the time he just gets in trouble for being crude and at most flinging his arm around their waist/torso to try to walk with them. When he gets in trouble it's more the teenage kind of police go "don't do it again son" thing not a go to court because it was criminal thing, okay? He doesn't force himself on people at all. (In fact he's only ever kissed one girl before. Even if he claims otherwise.)

In this chapter we learn Alfred's unstable enough to blow up a (albeit empty) building and frame a kid for it because he dented his car. And that the rest of the gang is unstable enough to not care. Wonderful progress we're making with these guys right?

And now- Fun facts!~ 8D

Elizabeta and Gilbert are childhood friends. They are _very _close (in a platonic way, as much as I love PruHun it's not so here) even if Gilbert won't admit it. (He's just upset that she can beat him at 'manly' things.) At some points they'll avoid each other like the plague if they're mad at each other, but most of the time they are very close and understand each other very well.

All seven of the gang are living in the same house/apartment building. Elizabeta is the only girl living there, but she doesn't mind. Besides, with the exception of Im Yong Soo, who loves girls far too much for his own good, Elizabeta claims "They're all totally gay anyway. They just either won't admit it/haven't figured it out yet." Well that's what it is according to Elizabeta anyway, are we really going to trust her to be completely honest on the subject? She accused her high school sweetheart (whom she still talks to and meets up with sometimes) of cheating on her with another guy once, odd part, she seemed totally okay with it. (He wasn't though.)

The three projectiles that flew at Alfred in this chapter (the pillow, soda can and picture frame) were thrown by Yao, Gilbert and Sadiq in that order.

The reason Sadiq was throwing himself a pity party was that he totally screwed up another date. The chick literally stood up and left him halfway through. After Alfred leaves to talk to Feliks, he finally woke up to grumble about it some more. Elizabeta just told him maybe he'd have better luck with guys and shot him a wink It's not hard to say Sadiq was a little ticked at that.

Feliks is sort of like the town gossip. (Except it's New York City gossip.) He's not so much a baddie, as he just has ears in the right places and a foot in the "criminal" pond. Like, if Al and his gang ever got busted for something Feliks helped with, he'd get say, a very large fine, but he wouldn't go to jail. He's good friends with Alfred, they had met in person before Al moved to NY, but it was mostly when Al took a trip to NYC or Feliks met with Al at -insert city name here.- He gets along well enough with most of his gang, though he's mostly neutral on them. With the exceptions of Gil (who he can't stand for some reason) and Elizabeta (cuz they're totes like, BFFs! Like, totally!)

Alfred and Matthew are _not _twins, though everybody mistakes them for that. Believe or not Alfred is actually a little over a year older than Matt, though he still acts like a younger brother to Matt most of the time.

Im Yong Soo is Yao's younger cousin. However, after some unfortunate incidents that happened earlier (that will be addressed later) Im Yong Soo was left with Yao raising him. Yao being a college student at the time had no idea what to do with a little kid. Yao was actually a great guardian and deeply cares for Im Yong Soo, tough he feels like he did a terrible job raising him due to the younger's absolutely atrocious personality and antics.(However Kiku and Yao will not be related at all.)

Gilbert and Ludwig will be brothers, Ludwig just hasn't come into the picture yet. You'll hear more about them later.

The name for Alfred's little gang is "Nations." So dubbed because oddly enough they all come from different countries. I wonder why. /insertsarcasm

The Nations are-

"Roles" you know so far are-

Alfred (22)- Leader (Self-proclaimed but everyone else agrees. They just don't agree out loud.)

Matthew (21)- Lawyer/Law man, deals with all things legal (and not so legal... hah). He's also "Bail-Out Boy" (As dubbed by Al and Gil)

Im Yong Soo (17)- Hacker, he's the best out there, even if he is a little eccentric. He even knows some martial arts too!

"Roles" you don't- (Shh. It's a secret)

Gilbert (24)

Elizabeta (23)

Sadiq (26)

Yao (30)

(I reserve the right to screw around with their ages as I go.)

And soon you'll meet the rest of the gang. Or should I say the other gang, heh. Sorry for all the childishness of this chapter, but that's kind of how these guys are. That's why it get even scarier when they go all serious, cold and calculating on a job.

Don't worry. Their stupidness will be balanced out by the other guys you'll meet next. (The "Sticks-in-the-mud" group more like it... Well expect for one of them.)

Thanks for reading all this! I'll stop rambling I swear. XD

* * *

**Character Clarification**

**Sadiq- Turkey (He doesn't wear a mask usually. He only wears it on jobs.)**

**Im Yong Soo- (South) Korea**

**(The girl he was hitting on is a Hetalia character too and will show up later.)**

**Feliks- Poland**

**Jer ("Ja-err")- Germania (It's a nickname of Feliks' for him, not his real name.)**

**Laura- Belgium**

**Heracles- Greece (He'll show up later too.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3, a.k.a. introducing the actually sane people in this story. XD**

**It's kind of short, but that's because there's not as much bickering between them. Honestly it took me a while to write this. I had to put on super-serious music and everything. They're haard to write. But it'll all be worth it when they meet with the gang.**

**(Note- Lein is Vietnam)**

* * *

A man stood in a large conference room, shuffling the papers he held in his hands. He sighed and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. His green eyes glanced up at the clock hanging off the nearby wall where it declared that it was, in fact, 3:00 in bright red numbers.

He tilted his head, took a seat at the end of a long table and folded his hands on the table in front of him, waiting patiently for the others to arrive. He turned to look over his shoulder at the screen behind him, which brightly displayed the map he was proud of. He grinned wickedly, praising himself for his work. Whoever was responsible for the dots on that map would be sorry they messed with him.

His turned as he heard the door open and saw three men enter. He smiled brightly, as he already knew the two blondes and the dark-haired man. They were a part of is regular team, even if he was receiving a couple new recruits (new to him anyway) for this mission.

He nodded to them as they took their seats and patiently waited for the other agents to arrive. He looked down at the papers in front of him, some of them displaying the faces of his team. His eyes caught on the flashy symbols sitting happily on the top right corner of the paper. Each paper had one of three symbols on them, and an additional one that was on every single paper. The first three symbols were simple enough, they depicted either a wolf, snake or eagle all curled around a sphere which was the Earth. The fourth, universal, symbol was slightly more intricate. At first it just seemed like a bunch of scribbles, but on closer look, an intricate design could be seen. A good agent could recognize this pattern at a glance and immediately pick out when a false one was presented. A _great _agent could copy the pattern perfectly. They were all symbols of Iustitia.

His was broken out of his examination as two more people entered the room, the new recruits. A woman with long black hair strode in confidently, while the man with the slicked black golden hair walked in more cautiously.

It was at this point that he stood up to greet the two. He hadn't bothered with the three before, but these two were new, and he felt the need to act the gentleman part and introduce himself.

The two looked over at him. The man jumping at his movement and the woman simply walking over to grasp the hand that had been extended.

"Lein." She stated simply before walking away to take a seat next to the already seated Japanese man to his right.

His gaze followed the woman curiously before turning to the man, who had by this time wandered over.

"Ludwig Beilschmidt." The man said as he shook his hand.

The man nodded. "Arthur Kirkland." He replied, glad that this one had stayed long enough for him to return the greeting. He released the man's hand and took his seat again.

He did a headcount then. Five. He sighed and rubbed at his temples before glancing over at the pair of blondes sitting to his left. One was a small, weak looking man in a black blazer while the other was a rather large, rather intimidating, man wearing a light blue button up shirt and a thin pair of spectacles. "Tino, have you seen the idiot?" He asked, annoyed.

The small man raised his eyebrows and shrugged. He looked at the man beside him. "Nope. What about you Berwald?" The larger man just shook his head without speaking. "Uh- so that's a no from us." Tino finished.

Arthur turned to the Japanese man on his right then. "Kiku?"

The small man shook his head. "No I am sorry Arthur-san. I have not seen him today."

Arthur felt a headache coming on as he turned to the two newcomers. He wanted to make a good impression on the new agents, so he decided to start the meeting. He stood and walked over to the large touch screen that was at the back of the room. He gestured at the screen to attract everyone's attention.

"Hello. We've all been introduced so I'll start now. I am Arthur Kirkland, and I shall be your leader on this operation." He smiled widely, getting back into the excitement of what all this meant. _His _breakthrough. "As you well know, Iustitia is an agency that prides itself on stopping crime. That is why we are here today."

He pointed at the map, which was a zoomed in map of the North-Eastern United States. It spanned- north to south- from Maine down to Virginia and- east to west- from the Atlantic ocean to Illinois. The map was filled with glowing dots of various colors on a scale from blue to purple to red. Small, transparent text hovered over each dot, naming the time and date that the said 'dot' had occurred. In reality, each dot was a crime-scene, all sharing similar enough traits to be considered possibly connected in some way. In all, it looked like rubbish, just a scattering of multicolored dots that seemed to have no connection. Arthur, however, knew better.

He smiled as he briefly explained what the map was and what it meant. "Any questions yet?" He asked. Tino raised his hand. Arthur nodded at him.

"What kind of crimes are we talking about here?" He inquired.

Arthur nodded again, approving of the question. "All sorts. They range from robbing a bank, to stealing art from a museum. There is even-" he pointed to two separate dots on the screen, "a kidnapping and the ensuing ransom."

Tino nodded, giving Arthur leave to continue. "Yes, well it seems like a mess doesn't it? It's an impressive number of dots sure, but that's it right?" He turned his gaze back to the screen and tapped it a few times. After he lifted his hand, lines began to form- connecting the dots as they had before. Arthur grinned deviously again. He really did applaud himself for coming up with the code he had used to puzzle out the pattern. Soon, all the dots linked together to form a mix between a grid and stars. Well, all except for that one stupid bright red dot hovering up in Maine. Arthur glared at the dot as if it were the bane of his existence. It _had _caused him some trouble. He would have figured out the code a good two sleepless days earlier if the dot hadn't suddenly popped up and ruined all his data. He had decidedly chosen to ignore the stubborn point of data, and came up with his grid a day later.

"Ah- New York? I've always wanted to go there!" A voice called out from the doorway, causing Arthur to spin, taking the glare off the dot and fixing it on the man.

"Francis. You're late." He snarled.

The man shrugged and flipped his shoulder-length blonde hair over his shoulder with a single hand. "Sorry, I got caught in traffic." Arthur raised an impressive eyebrow at this rather unlikely story. He decided to drop it though, turning back to the screen.

"Just take a seat." He shot back. Francis smiled brightly when he spotted the Asian woman sitting next to Kiku. He walked over and made his way to sit in the empty chair beside her.

"Oh like hell you will." She said before sweeping a leg out gracefully, simultaneously kicking the chair, sending it rolling across the room until it slammed into the wall, and Francis. Francis, being a trained agent, rolled with the impact and jumped to his feet, looking no more disheveled than he had before.

"Aww, Lein I was hoping for a better reception than that." He said, doing the smart move and sitting down in a seat on the opposite side of the table next to Ludwig.

"Aww, Francis-" She mimicked, "I was hoping you had drowned in a well somewhere." She said all this with a fake smiled plastered across her face. However, afterwards her face returned to the impassive scowl she had worn since she arrived. "Be professional." She snarled at the man.

Arthur decided he'd have to question his agents later about this. He also decided he liked this Lein girl. "Anyway." He cut in, bringing all the attention back to him as he gestured to the map. "As you can see, there are numerous radical shapes formed by the grid." It was true. In fact, now what had seemed like a mess held numerous color-coded star-like patterns. Every star held points of the same color, or close to it. One blue star hovered near Boston, a purple near Pittsburgh, and others all centered on major cities. Arthur than smiled at what appeared to be the beginning of yet another star, this one in red, forming around New York City. He didn't need to explain the map to his fellow agents, they all understood immediately.

"Everybody understand? There is another star beginning around New York, so that is where we must go to catch these criminals. I say criminals because of the pure scope of these crimes. We actually have no information at all on the perpetrator other than they are clean. Every crime has been an in-and-out job. Whosoever been doing this is quick and efficient. They are obviously intelligent, organized and highly dangerous. We are assuming that it is some sort of organized group, and we don't know how many enemies we may face." He gave all the members of the room an appraising glance. "Does anyone have any problems with that?"

He received six shakes of the head and he smiled.

"Then that's it. We're going in practically blind, but you are all Iustitia agents, so I trust you to be able to handle yourselves in such a situation. We're leaving for New York tomorrow where we will stay at a Iustitia safe-house. Everyone understand?"

Six nods. Arthur's eyes brightened. "Great."

* * *

The very next day, the seven agents were making themselves home in their safe-house. Kiku was already hard at work on his laptop. Making faces occasionally without his knowledge.

Arthur sat next to Kiku on a new plush couch, flipping though papers. He paused as he spotted the files he had on his fellow agents. He pulled them out and began looking at them. He did a quick count- three wolves, two eagles, and two snakes. So the new recruits were an Eagle and a Wolf. He suddenly felt very bad for the young Asian woman who was apparently going to work on the Eagle position with Francis. He, himself, would be specializing as a Wolf with the blonde German, along with Berwald. He looked over at Kiku, who was typing furiously.

A little too furiously, Arthur thought. "Find something?" He asked the Japanese man.

Kiku held up and hand quickly, asking for silence. Arthur sat there for another good five minutes before Kiku finally spoke up.

"I think I found a lead." He stated. Getting an approving look from Arthur.

"Already? We just arrived here this morning." Arthur was impressed, but of course that's why Kiku was such a high rated Snake.

Kiku nodded. "Actually I've been sweeping since we talked yesterday. It took a good twenty hours to find anything."

Arthur laughed. "I don't know about you, but a lead after twenty hours still sounds good to me."

Kiku pursed his lips contemplating this. "I suppose." He answered, obviously still not convinced. "Anyway I found a bug. I very _good _bug."

Arthur leaned over and looked at Kiku's screen, code flashing across it. Arthur considered himself decent with coding, he _had _solved the puzzle of the map after all, but this was beyond him. "Translate please." He asked.

Kiku, grinning, pulled up a simple internet browser and typed in an address. The website for a famous art museum popped up. Arthur nodded, art museums were nothing new, the criminal(s) had robbed many of them already. "It fits the M.O."

Kiku nodded. "It was in the camera system. It was set to self-destruct to a specific code, leaving the camera system unusable for a time period close to two hours before the cameras would recover from the shock." He turned to Arthur. "I assume I should disable it? I can do it in a way that will make it appear as if it is still active to whomever is at the other end."

Arthur smiled at his teammate. "You're the best Kiku. I suppose that means we better start staking it out tonight, we don't know when they'll strike." He stood up as the Japanese man began typing furiously again. He walked to the common area of the safe-house and found the other members of his team sitting there.

He looked over his team. Ludwig was reading a book by himself over in the corner, choosing to ignore the bickering that was occurring between Lein and Francis, which looked about to break out into a full out fist fight. (Well, more like Lein beating up on Francis.) Tino and Berwald sat on the large black leather couch, and unlike Ludwig, Tino seemed more interested in the fight than anything.

"Eh-em." Arthur cleared his throat, calling the room's attention to him. Ludwig looked up right away, and as did Berwald. Tino reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the fighting pair, whom themselves bickered for a bit before realized Arthur had entered.

"Kiku has found a bug and a potential crime-scene that matches our M.O." Arthur stated simply. "We'll start the stakeout tonight. Any objections?" When no one spoke up Arthur's serious face disappeared and he shot his team a devious grin. "Let's catch ourselves some criminals."

* * *

**OOC**-

I love the idea that Alfred's already screwing with Arthur before they've even met. (With the whole Maine outlier thing.) Oh poor Arthur, just wait until you meet the guy.

So these guys are all boring sticks in the mud. ;3; Except for Francis. He's an obnoxious man with a large ego. (And kind of Tino. He's fun sometimes.)

Also a note now that pretty much everybody in this story has some sort of tragic backstory. I feel kind of bad for the poor babies.

Next chapter's the 'heist'. So it'll be nice and exciting, and longer than this one. It'll make up for this kind of short chapter.

* * *

Fun facts~

Iustitia- Iustitia is an agency that works with the government (it basically _is _part of the government, think FBI or MI5, just as a company) to stop crime. The agency is made up of highly skilled agents from all over the world, fit into one of three specifically skilled sections. They have an extremely high-success rate because of the extensive training. Meaning almost no one gets away when they are on the job. To top that off, Arthur's team is made up of some of the most skilled agents out there (and two rising stars). Better watch out Alfred.

(BTW Iustitia means 'justice' in Latin. I _didn't _just pick it because it looks kind of like Hetalia. I swear. XD)

Symbols-

Wolves- Wolves are field agents. They are usually highly skilled in either firearms or some form of close combat. Aside from being the ones to go in during missions, Wolves are required to know basic hacking and also psychology. It is their job to be able to take in a situation in a brief second and choose a course of action that will give the desired effect. Wolves are fast, intelligent, and skilled.

Eagles- Eagles are intelligence agents, along with being field agents of a different kind. Eagles' main jobs are spying and rooftop surveillance. They tend to be acrobats and need to be able to get themselves _out _of confrontational situations easily. As such, it is a requirement that Eagles be able to not only lift their own body weight but also scale buildings. Eagles are nimble, stealthy and sly.

Snakes- Snakes are either hackers or undercover agents, Kiku being the hacker of their group and Tino the undercover agent. Snakes must be highly intelligent and smooth-talkers. Snakes literally have to pass a written test, testing their I.Q. before they are allowed in the section. They tend to be rarer than Wolves and Eagles simply by their nature. Snakes are quick thinkers, alert and crafty.

While most agents work solo, Tino and Berwald are partner agents. In fact, they were nicknamed the 'Married Couple' because of how close they are and how well they work together, a name Tino highly resents. After all he is not (and in no way resembles) a 'wife'. Berwald disagrees and finds the name highly appropriate, no matter what Tino says.

Lein worked with Francis before, that's how she knows him. It is easy to say that he it on her the whole time, causing them to botch a job (which was promptly righted later with the apprehension of the suspect) Lein was not amused and did not appreciate dealing with Francis for a little under a month. She was not happy to see him on her team again.

Arthur and Francis actually _are _friends despite what they might say if questioned. They went through training together, and while they do not get along well, surprisingly they work well together in the field. They have a mutual mission to constantly take jabs at each others egos. (Both of which are a bit large.)

Kiku and Arthur are also good friends. They work well together on missions because they share a similar mindset most of the time. Arthur and Kiku go through training at the same time, however since Kiku was a Snake they didn't see each other much. Wolves and Eagles share a lot of training, Snakes not so much.

Why yes, Ludwig _is _still Gil's brother. Why do you ask? He didn't go through training with anyone since Lein went through it a bit before him.

* * *

**Arthur- Wolf**

**Francis- Eagle**

**Kiku- Snake**

**Tino- Snake**

**Berwald- Wolf**

**Lien- Eagle**

**Ludwig- Wolf**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here it is. I took way to long to write this than I should have. :I**

**Hah, well here- have some fight scenes to tide you over until the USUK okay? XD**

* * *

It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear- if it had been out in the country the stars would have been bright. As it was, the bright city lights blocked out any distant stars. Alfred thought briefly about how that was how most things in life worked. If you were just a far away star, nobody cared about you when there were lights closer. Sure some people might give a passing thought, wondering where you had gone, but nobody _really_ cared. You had to be the sun or moon to get any real attention, and even then you would only be seen half of the day.

Alfred blinked. _Wow that was depressing. _He thought.

Alfred had just left his gang's apartment building, leading the way. He had a black beanie pulled down over his ears and a pair of black sunglasses perched on the end of his nose. He wore a tight black long-sleeved shirt and thin gloves. Unsurprisingly, his jeans and knee-high lace-up converse were also black. The only thing about the man that was _not _painted inblack was the oddly conspicuous American flags printed on the side of his shoes and his breast pocket.

He skipped happily around the (guess what) black van parked out in the street. Matthew had pulled it out of the garage earlier, still grumbling about Alfred denting his car. He yanked open the driver side door and hopped in, closing the door behind him with a slam. He waited patiently as Matthew, dressed in a similar outfit to Alfred's, got into the passenger side door.

Matthew's shoulder length hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he also wore dark sunglasses. Unlike Alfred, he wore a short-sleeved black T-shirt, and black khakis. A bright red maple leaf was printed over the right side of his chest, loudly and prominently showing off the Canadian flag. He gave Alfred a warning glance before buckling his seat belt.

The van rocked slightly as three people jumped into the back at once. Gilbert and Sadiq chattered excitedly while Im Yong Soo immediately jumped into a seat that was bolted down to the floor in the back of the van, leaning forward over a computer. The last two members of the group stepped gracefully in the back afterwords, pulling the doors closed. Alfred cast a look over his shoulder and promptly received a thumbs up from Yao and Elizabeta. Grinning, be buckled his seat belt and turned to the front again.

Anyone who knew Alfred would expect him to hit the gas with all his might. Under usual circumstances they would be entirely correct in this expectation. However, the energetic blonde was already starting to sink into the job. The usual idiotic grin that graced his face was gone, replaced by a determined smirk. So, instead of hitting the gas, he eased the peddle down and pulled slowly out into the city. I mean really, he couldn't have them being any more suspicious than they already were.

The only sounds after that were Im Yong Soo's energetic typing and the occasional snicker from Gilbert and Sadiq. Alfred felt his grin widen in an almost malevolent way as they grew closer and closer to their target.

"Hey, Kor, everything's set right?" He asked without taking his eyes off the road.

"Hmm?" Im Yong Soo answered. "Oh- yeah. Bug's ready to kill the system." The man had looked over at Alfred then. He wore a faded pair of dark bluejeans and a dark gray T-shirt. He didn't need to join the "wear nothing but black" team because if all went well he'd be in the van the whole job. (This was the same reason Matt didn't bother to wear a hat, his job was to guard the van.) However, he still had a large black scarf sitting on the desk in front of him to cover his face in case he had to make a getaway without the van. The likeness of the flag of South Korea was brightly displayed on each shoulder.

Alfred nodded. They sat in silence for another five minutes before Alfred pulled into a back-alley. "Here." He stated finally. Gilbert and Sadiq jumped to their feet and, uncharacteristic, actually calmly opened the doors. They stepped out slowly as Alfred and Matthew did the same in the front. Yao and Elizabeta followed out the back.

Alfred, Gilbert, Elizabeta, Yao, and Sadiq met at the front of the van while Matthew rounded around the back and jumped in with Im Yong Soo.

"Okay Nations. We start now. All seriousness." He said as he started walking, waving to the other four with one hand. With the other, he fixed the mike and wire that ran down the left side of his face. "You there Korea?" He asked.

"Yup, America. All is running fine here. Canada and I will hold down the fort." Came the reply. There was no cliché static or fuzziness, anything that could blur words or their meanings had been eradicated by Im Yong Soo's technical genius.

"Got it. Everyone else?" He asked.

He received five quick answers. He nodded. "That means we're going in. Keep the lines clear unless we need them." It was then that they reached their destination, a small part of the back-alley that was directly located beneath a two-story window.

"Let's do this." Alfred said.

* * *

Meanwhile, in an adjacent building, seven people sat in various positions around a room. Arthur was leaning back in a chair near a window watching his team.

Kiku typed at this computer like usual, waiting for any sign of the code that was meant to signal the "bug's" detonation. In all truthfulness, Kiku had reprogrammed said bug to send them a message instead. Once the criminals made their move the agents would know. His tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he scrunched his face, typing fiercely.

Arthur's eyes panned over to where Francis and Lein stood bickering, each dressed in their skin-tight black suits. While Francis wore a two piece outfit, Lein wore a full-on catsuit. Her hair was pulled up into a tight bun, and her bangs that had hung into her face the day before now were pulled out of her face- Francis on the other hand, simply had his hair back in a ponytail. Arthur listened in for a minute (it was something about who was the better Eagle) before rolling his eyes and pointedly deciding to ignore them.

Ludwig was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, arms crossed over his chest. He wore a plain black T-Shirt and black khakis. He had one of his shiny black shoes pulled up behind him and and pressed against the wall. He was also ignoring the rest of the group and had an almost glazed-over look on his face as he stared out a nearby window. His blonde hair was slicked-back like it had been when Arthur had first met him. The man was rather quiet and reserved, so Arthur had barely learned much about him other than the fact that he was a highly skilled rookie quickly climbing the ranks. He'd done a bit of quick target practice with the man earlier, and had been amazed at his excellent aim, not missing a single target. Arthur wasn't worried about the man, he could take care of himself. After all he wouldn't be an agent if he couldn't.

Finally, Arthur's gaze rested on the pair lounging on the couch located in the center of the room. Berwald was reading a book as Tino listened to music on an iPod. Neither looked all that thrilled to be waiting around. (Though Berwald never looked thrilled, or happy, or sad, or... anything really.) Tino fidgeted around impatiently. He was, in shocking difference to the rest of the team, dressed in a grass greenbutton up shirt and fancy enough jeans, with a dark blue baseball cap pulled down over his head. His hair was styled to fall slightly into his eyes. The whole get-up made him look younger, which was the idea. His job was to be inconspicuous. With the iPod, he painted the perfect picture of a teenager despite being in his twenties. Berwald on the other hand was rather conspicuous, even if he was dressed in all black like the rest of their team. His size and presence just had that affect.

Arthur himself wore a black shirt and black khakis like Ludwig, the only difference being that his shirt was long-sleeved. His blonde hair was hopelessly messy as always, but as long as it didn't fall in his face he didn't care.

He sighed as he started fiddling with the tassels on the curtain that was pulled back from the window. They sat in a small apartment building that was across the street from the suspect museum, wasting away their time in different ways. He rested his head against the wall and resigned himself to sitting in this chair for the rest of the night. Luckily for him, he didn't have to.

"Uh- Arthur-san the bug has gone off." Kiku said, jolting not only Arthur, but the rest of the residents of the room to jolt to their feet. Arthur quickly walked over to Kiku's side. "That means..."

"That they are there." Arthur finished.

"Well, it only means they are expecting the cameras to be off now." Kiku clarified, always the logical man.

Arthur nodded quickly before gathering his team with a wave.

"You know what to do. Let's go."

* * *

"Hey America, Prussia, could you spot me?"

Alfred nodded as Elizabeta started backing up. Gilbert planted himself against the alley wall while Alfred backed up to about three feet away from Gilbert. Elizabeta wrinkled her nose as she stepped in a puddle. She wore a one-piece leotard that covered her arms and legs. Her black boots had special grips on the soles, and her black gloves were thin and covered in textured grips. She wore a sort of ski mask, except it was made of rubber and was cut off above her mouth, leaving it covering her head and the top half of her face. Her long hair was tucked under said mask. Three horizontal striped of red, white and green, in that order, decorated her left shoulder, the smallest of all the flags as she needed to be the stealthiest. She bit down on a Swiss army knife, refusing to carry something so important in a pocket because she "couldn't trust them more than she trusted herself".

She began running at full speed towards the pair, aiming for the space between them. When she finally reached them, they each grabbed the front of her nearest shoulder, pulling her torso back. They then took their other hands and pushed as hard as they could on her lower back as they released their grips on her shoulders.

The result was Elizabeta twirling gracefully into the air, curling into a ball and giving one full spin before her hand shot out and grabbed the lip of the second-story window. This was accomplished by a mix of Elizabeta being lighter than she looked, Alfred and Gilbert being stronger than they looked, and Elizabeta being an incredible gymnast.

She held herself there with one arm for a moment before grabbing a hold with her other hand and pulling herself up. She perched on the small lip for a moment before reaching up to her mouth and taking a grip on the knife. She flicked it open, revealing a lock pick. She fiddled with the lock for only a few seconds before the widow clicked open. She growled when she realized it opened outwards.

"Hey America, Prussia, I'll need another toss." She said. Pausing a minute to give the men a moment to rearrange themselves, moving backwards near the other side of the alley. She nodded at the two thumbs up she received before pulling the window open, allowing the momentum to pull her backwards. She did a single spin before she neared the ground. She unlocked her knees, giving them room to bend. A split second later her right foot landed solidly in Alfred's and Gilbert's interlocked hands. They let her weight pull them down for a second before lifting her up and letting her fly back up into the air. Flying straight up into the air this time, she shot a hand out and was able to grasp the inside of the window. She smiled as she pulled herself up and nodded down to the four men looking up at her.

"Meet you around the back." She said, making her way to the back door.

Alfred grinned as he shot Gilbert a thumbs up. He wasn't sure if Gilbert rolled his eyes at him or not, as he wore a pair of tinted snowboarding goggles to hide his very distinct red eyes. He also had a black beanie on like Alfred- unlike Alfred (who had a few strands of his blonde hair falling out from under his hat) every single strand of silver hair was slicked back and hidden away. After all, it would be pretty easy to pick out an albino in a line-up.

Other than that, he wore a similar outfit to Alfred, black shirt and jeans, the only difference being his shoes were normal converse, not Alfred's boots, and the flag on his outfit was Prussia's. (Alfred had objected to this at first, as Prussia wasn't even a country and Gilbert was German, but Gilbert had insisted that he was to awesome to be a dull country like Germany.)

Alfred just shrugged and lead the way to the back door. They stood there for a few minutes before it clicked open, allowing them entrance. Alfred passed Elizabeta, striding confidently into the museum.

"I'll grab the Vargas paintings. Prussia, Hungary, you grab the Carriedos. Turkey, China, you check out the halls." He received nods from both Gilbert and Elizabeta before turning to Yao and Sadiq. Two more nods came from them. They looked like an odd pair, Sadiq wearing an intricate dark gray masquerade mask that clashed with his T-shirt and black pants. Yao wore what seemed to be a ninja mask, and his hair was pulled back into a bun. He even wore a seemingly militaristic uniform.

Alfred licked his lips as they split up. He grinned as he neared the hallway where the Vargas paintings were.

His team was so efficient it was scary. Barely ten minutes had passed and they were already getting ready to make a getaway. He grinned maliciously, blue eyes sparkling behind his dark sunglasses. He rubbed his hands together as he neared a rather beautiful painting of a field of roses in front of a window. But it didn't matter how pretty the artwork was, all that mattered was it was _expensive _artwork. He reached forward to claim his prize and take the painting off the wall before he froze.

"Ah- America? Somethings messing with out system." Im Yong Soo's voice came clearly through his earpiece.

"What do you mean." He shot back coldly, not appreciating being interrupted.

"I mean something's trying to block out our communications. I'm stopping it but..." Alfred hit the button to silence the communication quickly. He stood there for a minute, positive be had heard something before a faint _whoosh _caught his attention. He dropped to the ground immediately and watched as a dart planted itself firmly in the canvas of the painting he had almost had.

The first thought that passed through his head was remorse over the painting. It wouldn't be worth nearly as much with a hole, no matter how small, in it.

His second thought bordered on the lines of 'oh shit someone's here' while he cursed himself for not noticing the fact that the window had been ajar. He flicked his communications back and and stated simply. "War."

* * *

Sadiq jumped as one word rang through his earpiece. "Shit." He hissed as he grabbed Yao by the arm and began making his way back down to the van. He ran into Gilbert and Elizabeta at an intersection. They were about to run out before they heard voices coming from the other side of the door.

"Careful... probably armed... dangerous... stay here..." He heard snatches of before his eyes widened behind their mask. He made a quick cut-throat gesture and the four of them split up and ran down different halls, ditching the paintings.

* * *

Matthew was not amused. He had begun to worry when Im Yong Soo had started saying something was wrong, nothing ever went wrong with their team. He became even more stressed as the man said someone was trying to cut their connections.

Of course his worrying proved pretty useless as he heard voices outside the van. He had quickly grabbed Im Yong Soo by the collar and told him to keep quiet and let him handle the situation.

The doors had opened revealing three different guns, all pointed at Matthew and Im Yong Soo. Matthew had raised his hands, giving Im Yong Soo a look telling him to do the same, and allowed himself to be ushered out of the van.

He glared as he was moved to be stood up next to the van with Im Yong Soo, hands held over his head. His sunglasses were pulled off by a blonde man.

The officers (there were five of them) quickly conversed before planting two guards on Im Yong Soo and himself. The other three moved away to enter through the front of the building.

"Sooo... come round here often?" The blonde asked (the one that had pulled his glasses off). Matthew scoffed.

"Are you serious?" He asked shooting the man a glare. He was wearing some skin-tight outfit- It was ridiculous. The other, a dark-haired Asian man, seemed much more reasonable.

"Aw, no reason to be venomous. I'm just trying to make conversation while my team rounds up the rest of you criminals." The man said.

Matthew took this time to share a meaningful look with Im Yong Soo. "What makes you think you can?" He asked, phrasing the question to give away as little information as possible. He made sure to raise the pitch of his voice slightly, making himself seem younger and less threatening. Apparently it worked.

"Well because we are professionals." The man sniffed, letting his guard down. "And you _are _criminals after all. Actually, I thought that apprehending you would be harder, seeing how much trouble it took to track you down."

"Hmm?" Matthew asked, loosening his stiff posture slightly and bending his knees a little. "That's nice."

He nodded and made the mistake Matt was waiting for. He turned his head ever so slightly to look at the direction his teammates had left.

Matt took that time to strike. "Kor." He stated simply to alert Im Yong Soo before he lunged forward. He collided into the man, and they tumbled. It would have been helpful if the officers hadn't confiscated his pistol when they had pulled him out of the van, but he just grappled with the man for his gun.

Kiku jumped as he saw the blonde man (with a Canadian flag on him for some reason) crash into Francis. He spun to face the other man who had been pinned against the van. Suddenly the man was much closer than he had been before.

"Does that mean I get paired with you?" The man asked with a scarily happy voice. But the man was obviously their hacker, why would he-

Kiku's thoughts were interrupted as a foot swung at his head. He dodged backwards, barely avoiding it. The man completed his spin and used the momentum to step forward and shove his face into Kiku's.

"Come on. Don't you fight? You're no fun." He said as Kiku backed up frantically, reaching for his gun.

"Cut the crap Korea." The blonde grunted from where he had pinned Francis and was slowly forcing a gun out of Francis' hand.

"Sorry Can." The man said as the dark aura around him darkened.

Kiku glared and pulled out his gun and aimed it squarely on the man's forehead. "Halt." He said simply.

"Why?" The man asked, before dropping to the ground quickly. Kiku's eyes widened as he darted backwards to avoid the strike. Instead, his legs were swept out from under him and he hit the ground hard. He tried to sit up but found the young man pinning him.

"Night." He said before knocking Kiku's head into the ground with precise force as to knock him out.

Im Yong Soo then turned to Matthew who had finally wrestled his gun out of the man's grip. He had it pointed squarely at the man's forehead, who seemed to be in shock at this turn of events.

"What was it again about you being professionals?" He asked before he brought the grip of his gun down on the man's head, promptly knocking him unconscious.

Matthew stood up and dusted himself off. He rubbed the back of his neck before switching his mike on. "Canada and Korea are clear."

* * *

Gilbert and Elizabeta had split up and Elizabeta now found herself running down an empty hallway. She paused as she saw a shadow pass by the entrance of the hallway, but relaxed when she saw it was Sadiq. She waved as she met up with him. "How many?" She asked.

"I don't know." He answered. "Apparently Canada and Korea took out two out front. China's saying he counted six from his position."

Elizabeta nodded, but suddenly pulled Sadiq into an alcove as voices drifted from around the corner.

"You sure Ber? I didn't hear anything." A high voiced asked, and was answered by a gruff, "Yeah".

Elizabeta cursed quietly as she realized there was no way out of this confrontation. The two men were already walking down the hall. She gave a look to Sadiq. Two on two, seemed fair enough.

Just as the two men passed in front of their hiding spot the two leaped out, using the element of surprise. Elizabeta tumbled to the ground on top of a younger looking man as Sadiq crashed into a large man, sending them into a wall.

Toni's eyes widened as the woman landed on top of him. He immediately responded with a swift kick to her side. She hissed, but didn't let go of his wrists that she had grasped. He tried to kick her again but she rolled with it, sending them spinning once before they crashed into the wall.

Toni's face crinkled as he struggled, cursing himself silently. This was may be a Snake, but heshould be doing better than being pinned by the woman. He cursed very much loudly when he realized the woman had grabbed his gun out of his belt.

"Now, now, quiet darling." She said in a cold voice as the frigid barrel was placed against his temple, causing all his struggling to cease.

"Hey Hungary a little _help._" Came a strained voice from their right where Sadiq was fighting a very large, very unhappy man. He was dodging punches left and right and finding himself slowly being backed to a wall. "I am _not _positive here. Very much negative."

Elizabeta jumped up, pulling the small blonde up with her, gun still pressed to his head.

"You care about this shrimp?" She asked, pulling back the safety. This got a definite reaction from the large man as he froze and spun to look at the petite woman holding a gun to his partner's head. He made an executive decision. Screw whatever Arthur said later, this one job wasn't worth Tino's life. He finally slowly rose his hands.

"Wonderful." She said icily, pulling the small man with her to a nearby closet. Sadiq followed, panting, as the large man walked cautiously over. She yanked open a closet and motioned for the large man to enter.

"You don't need to do it Ber." The small man squeaked, receiving a nudge from Elizabeta's foot.

The larger man simply nodded before stepping in. Elizabeta then shoved the smaller man in afterwords and pulled the door shut.

"And stay in there!" She yelled, locking the door and promptly breaking the handle.

"Come on, let's go." She said to Sadiq, pulling him along back to the van, leaving the two men locked away.

"Sorry Ber." Toni mumbled softly, gazing down at the floor.

"'S okay." Berwald said leaning against the wall. "You'r' more important 'nyway."

* * *

Yao was perched carefully on the edge of a balcony. He sighed in relief as two consecutive, "clears" could be heard from Elizabeta and Sadiq. He shot back that there were definitely seven hostiles. That left three.

He stepped down from his position and began walking back into the building.

He was not expecting the kick that landed on in the back of his head. He yelped as he took a tumble forward.

He quickly spun to see a very angry looking woman looking down at him. He rolled sideways, avoiding another kick that had been aimed at him. He winced internally when he calculated where exactly the kick would have hit him if he hadn't moved. _Nasty._

She glared at him as he jumped to his feet, growling a small "aru". She strode forward purposely. He put up a hand to block her next punch, and used her own momentum to swing her body to collide painfully into a wall.

She grit her teeth and dropped to try to sweep his legs out from under him. He jumped back before she could do so, knowing the move well from when he sparred with Im Yong Soo. The young woman was talented sure, but inexperienced. She snarled and jumped to her feet, sending a kick Yao's way.

He dodged this one just as gracefully. He spun and landed a kick of his own squarely on her stomach, causing her to double over in pain. He took this time to dart forward and grasp her.

They began struggling, and Yao aimed their movements. They exchanged punches and kicks fluidly. Yao vaguely recognized the fighting style- It was one meant to take advantage of larger, bulkier enemies. Unfortunately for the young woman, Yao was just as flexible and lithe as her. He kept a mask of indifference planted firmly on his face as they neared the balcony.

It wasn't until they reached the edge of the balcony before a grin broke out across his face.

"What the hell is that for?" The woman hissed, not pleased that she was slowly growing tired as her opponent seemed fine. She should have thought it out before taking on this man, she knew. She was always rushing into fights, and while it had always worked out before, she was paying for it now.

She was surprised when suddenly the man got close to her. (His whole tactic had been backing up until now.) Her heart jumped as he shoved her. She realized her mistake as she found herself flying over the balcony to the ground below.

She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for impact. The ground was too close for even a highly trained Eagle like her to save herself. However, she yelped as she felt her arms jerk back, nearly pulling her shoulders out of her sockets.

Yao pulled the woman's arms back though the bars on the balcony. He tied her wrists together with the cord he always kept on him and dropped her arms. She gave out a small squeak, dropping slightly, before her now tied wrists caught on the bar they had been tied on opposite sides of. This left her dangling over foyer to the museum.

"The _hell!_" She shrieked before Yao leaned over the balcony and tied a bit of cloth he had torn from his uniform around her mouth, much to her distress.

"Try better next time, aru." He said before turning and leaving.

"China clear, two left."

* * *

**So I originally planned to have the whole confrontation to be one chapter but I decided to split it so Gil and Lud, and Al and Artie can sort things out. Hehehe.**

**I feel kind of bad at how easily Al's gang took out the agents. They were just unprepared is all! If they had had time to get more information/let the fights drag out longer things might have gone differently. After all, that's the gang's specialty, acting quick. (Though Lein totally got it the worst, she's hanging from a balcony right now. At least Francis and Kiku can't dwell on the fact they were beat and Berwald and Tino are at least not tied up.)**

**Comments? (Still feels bad about beating up her babbies.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Updates. Yaaay! /dead**

**I've been so tired lately because of my new classes- so writing is hard. XD Sorry for the delay.**

* * *

Gilbert had left Elizabeta to race down an Eastern hallway. He wondered briefly how the others were faring, and sighed in relief when he heard Matthew's voice in his ear telling them that Im Yong Soo and himself were safe.

Gilbert slowed at this, dropping to a steady trot instead of the full out run he had been going at. He panted a bit and hoped the rest of his team were still safe.

He glanced around the corner and found himself in the Vargas hallway. He chuckled nervously, and double-checked to make sure no one was there. He then ran up to see the damage. One painting had a rather suspicious dart sticking out of it, but other than that they all seemed intact. Apparently Alfred hadn't been able to grab any before he had announced they were being ambushed.

Gilbert quickly ran down the hallway, grabbing paintings haphazardly. As no one had ambushed him yet, he took it upon himself to be responsible for making sure that they hadn't wasted their time. It's what Alfred would have wanted.

He had a stack of a good five paintings before he reached the end of the hallway and stopped in his tracks.

"_Lud?_" He asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

The blonde man in front of him stopped. They shared a long look before he replied.

"I thought it might have been you, I didn't know though. You never told be you moved to New York."

Gilbert rubbed at the back of his head. "Well, yeah. We just came here a few days ago."

Ludwig nodded. He looked over at the empty walls, then to the stack of paintings.

"Sooo. You're taking the dive right?" Gilbert asked. Ludwig balked at this.

"Are you kidding me? I have a reputation to uphold you know!" He said furiously as Gilbert approached him. "I can't just 'take the dive'."

Gilbert pursed his lips, nearing Ludwig. He tilted his head slightly as he heard confirmation from Elizabeta and Sadiq that they had taken down their targets.

"Well bro, looks like four of your team's down already." He said, using he free left hand to ruffle the indignant man's hair. He received a slap for it.

"Really?" Ludwig asked, pondering.

"Yup. Didn't big bro always tell you how good his gang was?" Gilbert asked as he started walking down the halls towards the exit, Ludwig tailing him.

"Still. I'm new, I don't want to seem-"

"Does it really matter Luddy?" Gilbert interrupted. "You can just say you never ran into me."

Ludwig glared. "How come, even though I am your _younger _brother, I still end up taking care of you?"

Gilbert snickered. "Because I'm awesome and you're a worry-wort."

"Well none of this would be a problem if you had never left home!" Ludwig snapped. He was surprised when Gilbert stopped and turned suddenly.

"What?" He asked coldly.

Ludwig scowled. "Well if you hadn't run away all that time ago I wouldn't _have _to worry."

Gilbert's eyes filled with what was not so much anger or resent as hurt. "You know why I left." He whispered, dangerously softly. "You didn't have to worry, you could have just forgotten about me like everyone else."

Ludwig sighed. "You know I couldn't." He said. "I will always worry about you Gilbert."

Gilbert dropped his gaze guiltily before turning and starting to walk back down the halls.

"Well at least you ran into me and not someone else." He said finally.

The blonde man made a face at that. "You haven't told them about me?" He asked.

"Well I have," He said, pausing at he door. "But they haven't seen you yet or anything. And they'd totally whoop your ass." He smiled as a call from Yao arrived as if on cue.

"Sure." He snorted. "The only reason you're winning is because they weren't prepared for you all."

Gilbert winked at that, not that Ludwig could see as he was still wearing his snowboarding goggles. "But that's what we want, yeah?"

Ludwig rolled his eyes, which Gilbert could see. "Maybe that's what you want. I don't appreciate looking like a fool.

Gilbert smacked Ludwig's shoulder. "Yeah whatever. Go hide-out somewhere before you get caught by someone else without me."

Ludwig glared at Gilbert's back as the man walked out the door, mumbling something similar to 'will not _hide-out_' before storming off to find his fallen team-mates.

Outside, Gilbert walked up to the van were Matthew, Im Yong Soo, Elizabeta, Sadiq, and Yao were all gathered. "Prussia clear." He said into his mike as he approached, placing the paintings in the back of the van. "That means there's one left."

* * *

Alfred had fled the scene fast. He didn't quite like the idea of a sleep-dart to the back of the head. He panted as he rounded another corner and tried to contact his team.

"Korea? Canada? Are you there?" He was met with only radio-silence. "_Shit._" He snarled.

He stopped, rolling his shoulders back and hoping from foot to foot. It was no big deal, they could deal with this. It was the first time they had ever been caught in the middle of the job (well aside from Alfred's last job). However, they were trained and he trusted his team to take care of anything that came their way.

He cracked his knuckles and took a moment to come up with a plan of attack. He'd have to make sure he wasn't being tailed, then he would have to make a circle and pick up the paintings. Alfred F. Jones _wasn't _leaving without his prize.

He carefully started moving through the dead hallways. He padded silently, letting no sound come from his feet. He kept close to the wall, suddenly very much aware that the cameras were probably still functional. It didn't matter, as his team always wore masks anyway, but he growled at the idea that they, whoever 'they' were, would have footage of them to study. He didn't want them learning anything about his team.

He decided that his team's safety was more important than the paintings as he changed his path to now lead down to where he knew the security room was. He had to disable the cameras manually, and delete any footage of them.

He cracked his neck, he wasn't that worried. Either these hostiles were cops, in which case Alfred would wipe the floor with all of them by himself, or they were something better. However, nobody could take on his team.

He reached the control room after taking a few turns and grinned happily as his earpiece finally spoke up.

"Canada clear."

"Korea clear."

He laughed. "Cool dudes." He murmured to himself as he entered the room. He walked up to the keyboard and scrunched his nose. "Crap."

Alfred wasn't _bad _with computers. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He just suddenly worried over how long it would take to break the shiny new computers from the outside.

"Korea, can you give me some help getting in the computers?" He asked as he kicked the office chair aside and leaned over the keyboard.

"I don't know America, I'll try." Im Yong Soo began working furiously at his computer. Alfred cursed whoever these people were, as they were seriously starting to piss him off. Not only had they interfered with his job, but they were endangering his team and taking up too much of his time.

A good five minutes passed before Alfred finally heard an answer.

"Okay America, you can get in now."

Alfred smiled and he made swift work of the system, permanently killing it instead of stunning it out of spite, and flicking off the cameras. He glanced up at the screens before they flickered dead. In that quick moment he saw Elizabeta and Sadiq facing off with two other men, Yao out on a balcony and Gilbert running down towards the Vargas hallway. He smirked, proud of his team. He turned and walked out of the control man.

To say Alfred was surprised when he ran face-first into another figure was an understatement.

The other man took the opportunity to nail Alfred right in the side with a swift kick.

"_Shit._" Alfred hissed, jumping back into the room. He clutched at his side, struggling to catch his breath.

The man in the doorway leveled a gun on Alfred's chest. His piercing green gaze was steady and cold. "You're under arrest." He said calmly.

Alfred stared at the man blankly for a second before smiling. He coughed, still in pain from the kick that had nailed him. "Really?" He asked. He straightened from his doubled over position, shrugging off the pain in side.

The man raised an eyebrow and slowly repositioned his legs, obviously getting ready for Alfred to make some sort of advance. "Yes." Alfred just stood there and tilted his head slightly.

"What if I don't want to be arrested, officer?" He asked sweetly.

The man scoffed at this. "It's not really your choice is it?" He refused to lower his gun or let it waver. Alfred resisted the urge to pout at this. Maybe the man was a professional, but everybody had to let their guard down eventually.

"Well I think I should have some say." He replied. "After all, what control do you have over me?" He inched his way forward.

Arthur glared. "Halt." He said, noticing the slight, almost imperceptible movement that the criminal had made. "Don't make me shoot you."

"Aww. Would you?" He asked, taking a full step now.

His eyes widened as Arthur shifted the gun slightly and shot into the wall over his shoulder. The criminal turned his head somewhat and looked at the new hole in the wall.

"Does that answer your question?" He asked.

Alfred quickly did a reassessment of the situation. Obviously this man was for real. He leveled his shaded gaze on the man. This would have been so much easier if he had brought his pistol, as it was all he had on him was a slim pocket knife tucked into his left boot.

He bit his lip, he had a plan, but it only worked if he could get close enough to this man. As it was, he needed to be a good three steps closer to the man if he was going to be able to make it to him without being shot. (That was if the man was serious about shooting him, it could have still been a bluff.)

"That's not very nice, officer." He said, looking around the room quickly, trying to find something to help him.

"Agent." The man sniffed. "Now put your hands up _now._"

Alfred frowned as he realized he was out of options. He slowly raised his hands.

At that very moment, Alfred's earpiece beeped on and Elizabeta and Sadiq's voices came through. This momentarily distracted the 'agent', giving Alfred exactly the opportunity he needed. He dropped low, under the aim of the man's gun, and rushed forward.

The man acted as expected, and quickly tried to back up while re-aiming the gun at Alfred's new position. Alfred quickly shot out a hand and knocked the gun up. Unfortunately, the man was still able to keep a grip on it.

It didn't really matter though, because in the process he had been able to pin the slightly shorter man against the wall.

"I said I didn't want to." He said, smirk spreading across his face. He had one hand holding the gun away from them while the other grasped a hold of his other wrist, pinning it down against the wall.

Arthur's eyes widened at how fast the situation had played out. Suddenly he was pushed against the wall and his gun, while still in his hand, was unusable as the criminal had an equal hold on it. He struggled, trying to kick the man, but found it impossible as he was soon overpowered.

The man grinned evilly as he tilted his head. "You know, up close you're kind of cute." He said.

Arthur didn't know how to respond to that, so he just remained quiet.

He was a Wolf damn it, he needed to get himself out of this situation quick before it got out of hand. He didn't want to take his eyes off the threat in front of him, but he forced himself to try to find something he could use to his advantage.

"What no comeback? Not so snappy now that you're not pointing a gun at my chest?" Alfred asked. He received a glare from the man at that and snorted. He tilted his head and leaned closer. "You don't want to talk to me anymore? I thought we were off to a great start."

Alfred was surprised when the man answered back. "Oh come off it." He said calmly.

Arthur slowly panned the room. He internally cursed when he found nothing to help him. He then decided that the best course of action would be to play into the man's ego. From what he could hear, the man was cocky. Maybe he could convince him to let his guard down to where Arthur could get full control of his gun instead.

Alfred wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he was most certainly not expecting it when the man stopped struggling. "You giving up?" He asked. The man remained quiet and it unsettled Alfred. His grip unconsciously loosened, and he got a swift kick for it.

Arthur grinned as the man yelped and recoiled. He recovered from the kick to the shin quickly, but not quick enough, Arthur twisted his wrist, pulling against where the man's thumb and fingers met in the grasp and breaking his hold.

Alfred saw this happening and made a quick move. Instead of trying to grab the gun for himself, he knocked the gun away viciously. He watched as the gun spun across the air and landed neatly on the floor across the room. There was a moment of silence as the both of them stilled.

It was at that point that Arthur darted for the gun, hoping he'd reach it before the other man. His mistake was assuming that Alfred _would _dart for the gun. Instead, the man lunged forward and crashed into Arthur. Arthur cursed loudly as they crashed into the ground. He kicked out again, nailing a kick in Alfred's _other _side. He quickly lashed out while Alfred flinched and landed a fist on Alfred's right eye.

"Damn man." Alfred hissed, quickly grabbing the man's wrists and pinning him to the ground by placing himself over him. "That _hurt._"

"No really?" Arthur hissed. "It's supposed to dumbass."

Alfred laughed. "Oh feisty are we? Lashing out with words now that you know you're done? That's kind of childish." He sniggered as the man's eyes filled with resentment. "What now 'officer'?"

Arthur was becoming increasingly nervous. It was true, he was helpless now and his brain was racing to find a way to talk his way out of it. Maybe insulting the man _wasn't _the best idea, but Arthur was just panicked, trying to strike back any way he could.

It was one of the things that had gotten him in trouble during training. His temper had always flared up when he was presented with a situation he couldn't handle. Of course, then he had only been promptly dismissed for the day with a reprimand and told to go for help and rely on his team-mates more. Now was completely different, he couldn't just terminate the situation when he got beat.

"_Fuck._" Arthur growled, trying hopelessly to kick at the larger man's feet. His eyes caught on a slight shine of silver poking out of his knee-high boots and he quickly worked to keep his face neutral. The gun was far too distant to reach, but if he could somehow get ahold of that knife...

"Well I'd prefer to go on a date or two first if that's okay with you." The man wanted nothing more at that moment than to nail him right in the nose, but unfortunately his hands were still pinned. He felt some sick satisfaction that the man's right eye was already bruising.

A voice rang through Alfred's earpiece, an Oriental accent speaking in a clear voice.

"China clear, two left."

Alfred gave a smirk at this. He leaned closer to Arthur's face, causing the agent to hiss.

"You hear that? You're beat. Your team's down. You've got all of one agent left backing you, and I'm pretty sure that they're in far over their head."

Arthur did quick work in his head. If the criminals were correct in their headcount of his agents, that meant Francis, Kiku, Berwald and Toni were all definitely down. Francis and Kiku had been left together, while neither Berwald or Toni would go down without the other. That left either Lein or Ludwig as the final agents remaining. He felt suddenly sick to his stomach, for two reasons.

One, he didn't know what this man meant by 'down'. He hoped to _anything _that his agents were okay. He didn't even know how the operation had fallen apart since he had received no communication or distress calls from his team. He was far less concerned about what this man would do to him than he was about what his gang had done to his team.

Two, was that whether it was Lein or Ludwig, they were both new. Sure maybe they weren't straight out of training, but they were still younger and inexperienced. If the rest of his team had been taken down so easily, than those rookies would probably be in big trouble.

"So are you actually giving up this time?" Alfred asked, snapping Arthur out of his thoughts. He replied with another muffled kick to Alfred's leg, watching with anticipation as the silver knife slid a little farther out into the open.

"Ow! You are abusive aren't you!" Alfred grumbled. He considered briefly what to do. Obviously his team had taken care of themselves. One of their many plans for 'war' or being ambushed was to partner up, deal with the problem, and get out. As soon as Matt and Im Yong Soo had announced they were 'clear' that was the plan that had gone into affect. It only happened to end perfectly where it was seven on seven apparently.

As everything had gone to plan, each Nation had taken care of an agent to the best of their ability and judgment and made a getaway to the van afterwords. That meant only Gilbert hadn't faced off with anyone. He trusted Gil to take care of the last agent.

What to do with the man who was abusing him now though?

Arthur didn't grace that with an answer. This man was a threat and he had to deal with it as soon as possible. He gave the man a last kick, managing to move his foot from where Alfred had tried to pin it to keep from moving. It was all he could do to keep his eyes from lightening up when he saw the knife fall, and better yet when Alfred didn't notice. He quickly shifted his leg to cover the shine.

"Stop it!" Alfred growled. Arthur just gave him a sickly-sweet smile.

"Sorry, my foot slipped." He said innocently. The man had better do _something _soon. As soon as he shifted, Arthur would dive for the knife. His eyes widened slightly as he realized the man might not give him that chance. There had been no murders on the list of crimes he had committed, but how did Arthur know this man was not above killing him right there? He didn't really need a gun, he already had Arthur defenseless.

He gulped, vanishing the thought from his mind. It wasn't any good to him now, all he needed to do was focus on getting out.

"Yeah I'm sure, darling." Alfred said. He leaned back slightly, but made sure to keep his grip on the agent. He perked up as he heard Gilbert's voice come from his earpiece and ring through the room.

"Prussia clear. That means there's one left."

Arthur's heart dropped. His whole team was currently down, and it was his responsibility to make sure they weren't bleeding out somewhere or _worse. _And here he was, being _taunted _by some stupid criminal.

"Ah! That means it's just you and me." He said, grinning. "And as much as I'd _love _to stay with you here, I really do have to leave. Disappointing, I know."

However, despite this declaration, neither of them moved. Alfred pursed his lips as he wondered what to do. He could knock the man out, but for some reason he didn't really _want _to smash the man's head against the floor, you never knew what kind of damage that could do.

A wide grin spread across his face as he spotted a pair of hand-cuffs hanging from a nearby peg on the wall. This was the room where the security guard worked, how could Alfred have forgotten that? Now... How to get to the hand-cuffs?

Arthur was having a similar predicament. He knew the knife was hidden under his leg, all he had to do to get it was free a hand and reach down. He ignored the voice in his head that asked what use it was. His team was down, and the man could probably overpower him knife or not. But at this point it was mostly a battle to prove something. If he could get that knife, than at least he hadn't failed completely.

Alfred decided that the best way to solve his problem was to just drag the man along with him. The gun was still lying across the room where it had fallen before, so he didn't need to worry about that. Alfred threw caution into the wind as he decided to just go with it. After all, his knees were starting to hurt from where they were digging into the tile floor on opposite sides of the man, and his left shin was in pain from the agent's kicks. Not to mention the black eye he could feel forming.

He sat back and began to pull the man up with him.

Arthur's heart sped as he acted. He turned his own arm at an odd angle and pulled. It hurt him in the process, but he managed to break his right had out of the man's grip. He quickly grabbed the knife and flicked it open.

Alfred cursed as he lost his grip on the agent. He tried to grab for him again but pulled up short when suddenly a knife was held against his throat.

"Oh." Alfred said. Crap, how had he forgotten about the knife? He hadn't forgotten about it exactly, just had deemed it inconsequential to the situation since he certainly wasn't going to cut up the agent's pretty face. Apparently the agent had no similar quarrels, and had worked the knife out of Alfred's boot. Suddenly the petty kicks all made sense.

"Oh." The man mimicked smugly. At this point the two of them were more in a sitting position. Alfred still had a hold of the man's left hand with his right, but he no longer had his weight pressed down on the agent. His left hand hovered in the air by the side of his head, unsure what to do.

They stayed like that for a minute neither one of them moving. "Now what? You going to slice me?" Alfred asked bluntly.

Arthur balked at this. He didn't actually intend to 'slice' the man, and certainly hadn't expected the man to call him out on it so... coldly.

"Well- uh." Arthur stuttered, hand faltering.

Alfred grinned. "Knew you liked me." He said before quickly moving his hand and pulling the man's wrist away from his neck.

Arthur struggled again as Alfred pulled them up, still trying to fight. "Bloody hell!" He yelled as he realized he'd just been bested again. Damn it! He had had the knife! He had had the upper hand and yet here he was being dragged kicking and screaming over to the wall.

Alfred snagged the hand-cuffs and steered the two of them over to the desk that was bolted to the ground. He held the man's arms firmly behind his back and he pushed the man forward. A stream of rather loud, rather British curses rang through as the man battled.

It was all useless as Alfred pushed him to the ground and leaned over him.

"It was fun, but how about next time we ditch the teams when we play cops and robbers, okay?" He said with a wink as the hand-cuffs closed with a _clink._

Arthur's head spun to see his hands. They were now firmly held in a pair of shining metal cuffs. The worst part was that they were on opposing sides of the leg of the bolted-down table, leaving Arthur unable to free himself. He pulled the cuffs towards his back, hoping to break them against the leg, but it was no use.

"I swear I will catch you." He snarled at the man who was backing up, admiring his handiwork. "And when I do you will be _sorry._"

Alfred laughed. "Do you know how many times I've heard that? Not only is it cliché, it is also overused."

Arthur sighed, letting his worn body relax. He was sore, and he wondered how long he would be locked there. He only hoped his team was okay.

"Seriously, call me sometime okay?" Alfred laughed, shooting Arthur a thumbs up, as he started to leave the room.

"Don't believe I ever caught your number, or name." Arthur replied scathingly, rolling his eyes. At this point, he was just fed up of the strange man and his tauntings.

"That's easy!" Alfred called back, standing in the doorway now. He faced Arthur and pointed to the bright flag printed on his chest. "I'm America." He shot the agent one last wink before slamming the door shut.

"Yeah." The man said, sarcasm pouring into his voice. "And I'm England."

* * *

The six members of Alfred's gang all fidgeted nervously. After Gilbert had arrived, they had all assumed they were home free. That meant there was one agent left and said agent was probably grappling with Alfred.

They all knew Alfred could handle any 'agent'. However, as time went on they all became nervous. Why hadn't Alfred called in?

"It's _fine _guys." Matthew reassured them. "Alfred must have gotten caught up somewhere. He would have sounded a 'negative' if he were in trouble. He's arrogant, but not so arrogant that he's let himself get beat."

He received five nods and grumbles. Matthew nodded sharply and refused to move from his seat in the passenger side. The other team-mates were all shuffling in the back of the van.

Matthew grit his teeth, where _was _that dratted man? He had even started the van once Gilbert had met up with them. If Alfred didn't show up soon...

They sat there for another minute before the entire van let out a relieved sigh as the computers picked up a familiar voice.

"America clear. Sorry 'bout that guys. I'll be there in a second." The voice came clearly through the speakers.

"One." Matthew counted. Against all odds, Alfred did _not _materialize out of thin air after one second. Instead, after a little over a minute, the perky man appeared at the door and yanked it open.

"We all clear?" He asked.

"Yes. Gilbert even grabbed the Vargas paintings." Matthew replied. "Now can we _please _get out of here."

Alfred nodded as he hopped in his seat. He closed the door with a slam and pulled his seat-belt down. He hit the gas and they pulled out.

"Can we please lay low for a while? I think I may have a serious bruise forming on my side." Sadiq asked from the back.

Alfred laughed loudly, making the rest of the residents of the van jump.

"_You _have a bruise forming?" He asked, pausing at a stop sign and turning to face the people in the back. He pointed at his left eye. "I beg to differ."

He turned back to the front and ignored the pelting of questions that flew his way. Soon, the gang realized they weren't getting any answers and immediately started coming up with their own wild theories to what happened.

Matthew exchanged a look with Alfred when he heard a cry of "Well it must have been a ninja!" from Im Yong Soo. The idea was shot down by Gilbert and Sadiq, claiming that Yao was a 'ninja' and he never had been able to land a hit like that on Alfred (much to Yao's indignation).

Alfred laughed as the frost of the job seemed to melt from around his team and they turned back into the bickering mess he knew and loved.

What would they say if they knew he'd let himself be pegged by some grumpy British man?

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait. (Honestly I had the basic scene written but just didn't edit it for like... ever)**

**Thank you again for all the follows and favorites and reviews! I love every one. :)**

**(Promises to write better next time /shot)**

**-Dawn**


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